Battle Squad

This article is about the six-bot Decepticon Micromaster Combiner team. For the four-bot Autobot Micromaster team, see Battle Patrol.

The Battle Squad is a team of Decepticon Micromasters from the Generation 1 continuity family.

In a race of warrior robots, their name doesn't really say much.
Top row, L to R: Meltdown, Direct-Hit, Fireshot
Bottom row, L to R: Half-Track, Power Punch, Vanquish

The Micromaster Combiner Battle Squad, led by Direct-Hit, is central to the Decepticons' off-radar defense. When they band together with a cybernetic compressor, their firepower is incredible. Aided by their advanced visual tracking systems, they can annihilate anything in a three-mile radius. If an Autobot spacecraft vanishes from radar screens, the Battle Squad is usually the culprit. When they separate, however, they tend to spend their time taking potshots at one another.

• Direct-Hit and Power Punch the cannon transport
• Meltdown and Half-Track the anti-aircraft vehicle
• Fireshot and Vanquish the Blackbird jet

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

The Battle Squad appeared exclusively in the UK portion of the Marvel Comics continuity.

The Battle Squad refereed a football match between Defensor United and Bruticus All-Blacks. They were distracted from Brawl handballing a goal in the final minutes by being stepped on by Bruticus. The goal stood.

Regeneration One

The Battle Squad were members of Soundwave's group of Neo-Decepticons at Fort Scyk in Polyhex. Counterpoint

Toys

The Transformers

Half-Track (with Meltdown in front)

• Battle Squad (Micromaster Combiner Squad, 1990)

Released in the seventh and final year of the original The Transformers toyline in the US (sixth and not-final in European markets), the Micromaster Combiner Battle Squad was sold as a blister-packaged six pack of Direct-Hit and Power Punch, Meltdown and Half-Track, and Fireshot and Vanquish.

Each member forms half of a military-themed vehicle, though they are all compatible with any other Micromaster Combiner or Combiner Transport, enabling you for form all sorts of weird new vehicles.

Members from this team were used —without alteration— to make the Japanese Return of Convoy Autobot Crane Cannon W Team and Jet Tank W Team.

War for Cybertron: Siege

Direct-Hit

• Direct-Hit & Power Punch (Micromaster, 2020)

• Hasbro ID number: WFC-S47
• TakaraTomy ID number: SG-44
• TakaraTomy release date: February 22, 2020

Part of the fifth wave of Siege Micromaster two-packs, Direct-Hit and Power Punch transform into slightly chunkier versions of their original alt-modes. They now combine via 5 mm post, and have multiple Fire Blast effect compatible points. Their robot modes now feature enhanced articulation thanks to multiple ball joints.

As a part of the C.O.M.B.A.T. System, they now also have a new combined bazooka-like mode for larger figures to use, which is just the combined vehicle mode upside-down and pointed backwards.

Strangely, their classic combined vehicle mode is not shown on the package, except in its weapon-mode capacity. It’s glimpsed in the instructions, but not as a final step; only as part of the process of forming the bazooka.

War for Cybertron: Earthrise

• Direct-Hit & Power Punch (Micromaster, 2020)

• ID number: WFC-E40

Direct-Hit and Power Punch received a package refresh in the subsequent line, Earthrise, as the only item in the third and final wave of Micromaster two-packs. The two releases are virtually identical aside from the packaging.

Like all Earthrise toys, the cardboard back of the Earthrise version of the Battle Squad's package includes an exclusive cut-out collectible piece of a larger star map.

Notes

Foreign names

• Italian: Squadra Combattenti ("Fighter Team")